http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/jfont005.jpg
How do you fish this?
Water temp 54
Brookies in holes before and after.
8:30am 74 degree outside temp
No obvious hatch
Cased caddis on rolled over rocks.
What is your first target area?
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http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...a/jfont005.jpg
How do you fish this?
Water temp 54
Brookies in holes before and after.
8:30am 74 degree outside temp
No obvious hatch
Cased caddis on rolled over rocks.
What is your first target area?
1) small wooley bugger drifted into hole and then make it look like it is "holding it's own" against the current.
2) an emerger, drifted with small weight 18 inches above........killer to the little buggers!
3) black ants!
Are there green worms on those trees? If so, I might try a green weenie drifted along and under the undercut bank based on that overhang of green trees.
I'd suggest the following to try:
1. Small Green Madam-X size 14 with a midge size 20 or 22 on 7x flouro tippet trailed about 18" behind the Madam-X. The grass and the tree coverage to me just screams "terrestrial".
2. Shenk's White Minnow with a split shot about 3" above the fly. Swim it "like a bait fish" through all the water.
3. If all else fails - Olive / Black Woolly Bugger in size 12 or 14 tied about a foot behind a Hare's Ear Nymph fished in all "fishy looking" places.
These have all produced for me over the years enough that I don't even think about hatches unless I can't see the water because of the bugs in the air. #2 and #3 are just deadly searching methods for water where I can't figure out what is on the menu.
Len, due to the vegetation, this looks like a roll cast situation to me. I'd start fishing upstream, casting to about where the guy is standing, and carefully work my way up to the root clump on the left. I'd give that area some special attention, then work on up to the riffle. The white water on the left would get some definite attention, if possible, I'd like to fish it from just slightly downstream or from directily across. Flies of choice would probably be caddis emergers or small streamers.
Hi Spinner,
Great photo, as usual.
I must have looked at this picture twenty or thirty times trying to decide how I would fish that very sweet spot. I think I would be tempted to try a little Czech nymphing using a three-fly rig with smaller and lighter than normal nymphs, maybe size #10 or even #12. The distances and and the depth look perfect for that type of approach. I would definitely drift them by those roots as close as I could but I would also bounce them along the center main channel. I would really be surprised if this a method failed to produce at least a few fish. 8T :)
Is this a test?
OR
Are you asking for help?
Always in learning mode.
Like to read and see how someone else would approach/fish holes.
If I didn't know the water, I would fish a hopper with a hare's ear or PT and brassie dropper. I would fish upstream working from the inside edge to the undercut. Working every lane before lengthening my cast and doing the same thing again. OR I would dead drift a white streamer with a rust colored stone fly above it along the undercut and swing it into the inside bank working downstream taking a step after every other cast or so.
PS
There was probably a fish right where the person is standing.
Jimmie fished that area before he moved up.
He caught 2 where he was standing.
He did lots of roll casting...
and many trees were adorned with flies that day.
2nd time out for him ever.
Jimmie was using a size 14 lightning bug...
first i wouldnt stand above the fish because as you can see in the picture the silt that is going to go right through the fish making them know something aint right
Jimmie is fishing upstream.
Already fished water he is standing in and does NOT have the casting
ability to cast with trees above him...he was limited to rollcasting.
I always enjoy learning from someone like you who spends much more time on the water than I do. I still have my ideas on how to approach holes even with my limited experience. I like to fish the tail water section first. Sometimes fish hang at the tail section of the hole. I don't like to cast straight into the middle of the hole and line a big fish and spook him. I also have learned (from a very wise man) that if you take a few fish they tend to move upstream to relocate so if I fish the tail section first they tend to move into the center of the hole before I push them completely out of the hole.
I tend to fish either side of the main current first. These two feeding edges are where the fish are waiting for their meals. The fish don't have to expend much energy to take a meal on the seams so that is an efficient place for them to wait. After these two edges, I fish right in the main current and then the two edges of the banks.
As much as I like to catch brook trout, I find them not as sophisticated as the brown. They are much more tolerable to me standing on top of them as I experienced again this past weekend when I pulled 4 or 5 brookies out of the same hole while only having out a few feet of line and standing almost on top of them. Every body of water is different though and I always try and fish it as though a large brown lives there and if I catch brookies, well they are still fun.
Rick
Since this is brookie fishing, I would go with something flashy. If I was feeling good about my skills that day (roll casting and clean difts) I would probably try a dry and a dropper. The dry could be a parachute with a Krystal Flash abdomen (e.g. Parachute Patriot) or something to match an visible hatch (Adams? Terrestrial? etc...) The dropper might be a flashback nymph probably small but with at least some weight. Or I might wimp out and cast a PTN or GRHE... Maybe a flashback, silver-ribbed French John? (nymph hook, small French tinsel rib, purple silk floss abdomen, peacock herl thorax, holographic silver tinsel "wingcase", beadhead optional). Named after a Coureur des Bois who was active in the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys in the 18th century.
I also enjoy seeing what everyone else would do in this situation.
Maybe we could make this a regular type of thread to benefit those of us with less knowledge/experience?